Power generation, manufacturing, air conditioning, and various other processes require significant amounts of thermal dissipation in order that effective operation may proceed. Recent ordinances forbid the discharge of excess heat into most waterways so large water-cooled heat exchangers are not permitted, or are at least looked upon with much disfavor. Furthermore, common evaporative heat exchangers consume excessive amounts of water and they precipitate appreciable amounts of moisture into the air, thus causing extensive ground fog over neighboring areas, so they too are generally classified as undesirable.
An alternate to water-cooled heat exchangers and to evaporative cooling towers comprises what is known as dry cooling towers. Dry cooling towers discharge heat therefrom directly into the air so they have a lower effectiveness and they are relatively expensive, but they do not discharge heat into adjacent bodies of water, nor do they discharge moisture into the atmosphere, so they have obvious environmental advantages in spite of their lower effectiveness and greater expense.
The present invention is therefore directed to a dry cooling tower that transfers heat from a liquid to a gas with few disadvantages of either system and most of the advantages of both.